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Ar tonelico Qoga - Impressions: Battle System

I have come to the realization that I will not be reviewing Ar tonelico Qoga any time soon. There's a lot to do in ATQ, and I don't want to review it until I fully complete it. So, until that day arrives, the least I can do is talk about what little I have played. At the moment, I'm ten hours into the game, and I'm enjoying it so far. However, there's a few details I would like to share over the coming days with those who are still deciding to buy the game or not.

For this piece, I'll start with the battle system, as it is fairly easy to get into once you understand the baiscs. For the most part, it's a button masher, but there are times when attention must be given to the flow of battle. When you encounter a battle, you are taken to an open oval field. Once there, you and your AI controlled combatants will rush towards the enemy. This is done to either kill the threat, or block their advance towards the frail, magic-wielding, Reyvateil at the far end of the field. If they get too close to her and enter her power field, a warning sound will go off. At that point, her HP will start to drain and she will be unable to respond to commands for as long as the enemy is disrupting her. It will also begin to attack her, further depleting her health. Here you can either rush to her aid and kill the enemy, or use a special ability (press circle) that will teleport you to the threat and knock it away. However, that ability can't be abused, as it has a cool-down time. If you can't get to her in time, and she loses all her HP, the game is over. Similarly, if all your combatants fall while trying to protect her, the game will also end.

Now, as you are fighting enemies, your melee combatants can utilize a few attacks. They can intiate a three hit combo (press square), or use one of several special moves once learned (square + dpad). However, special moves require HP to activate, so they too can't be abused. But, you can heal at anytime in or out of combat with no time penalty. Just open the menu and use what you want (including attack items). As for the Reyvateil, she has incredibly strong ranged attacks, but they take time to prepare. During longer fights, you need to pay attention to the musical bar chart on the screen. By pressing your attack button when certain colored spikes in the graph line up with the blue line, you get several bonuses. Some are always activated, while others need to be found and equipped. The most frequent of them though are the HP restore, melee attack up, and the Reyvateil boost, which all activate at once.

By far, the most important is the Reyvateil boost though, and the main reason you want to pay attention to the graph. As you hit those special spikes on the graph, the phrase "Beat Up" will appear, and her boost gauge (which shows how much her spell damage is amplified) will increase faster and faster. As you accumalate several "Beat Up" a new ability becomes active. The phrase "Purge Available" appears next to graph, and it's at this point where the Reyvateil can further increase her power. To activate the purge, you need to hold down one or all of the shoulder buttons, and give the controller a hard shake. I'd say this would be annoying, but since you do it so infrequently (mostly against big enemies or bosses), it's not a problem.

Once the purge has been activated, several things can happen. As you progress in the game, your Reyvateil will gain special items that can add special effects to a purge, like imbuing the melee fighters with elemental properties or increasing their health regeneration rate. So, if you purge while holding down one shoulder button, that ability will be activated. If you purge while holding between two and four shoulder buttons, multiple abilities will become activated. However, this advanced ability becomes unlocked over the course of the story.

Before or after a purge, you can choose to launch the Reyvateil's spell. By pressing the X button, the battle pauses, and you can choose where to activate the spell. Depending on the spell, it might be an area of effect or line of sight. When a target is chosen press X to fire the spell. Once the attack is finished, her gauge resets to zero, and she'll prepare another spell. Finally, if she has purged (up to three times, either at once or consecutively), her gauge will increase faster than before, and her spell will do exponentially more damage.

If all of this sounds complicated or confusing, it really isn't. Most of the battles I've fought so far were over in less than 5 seconds (battles are very fast in this game), which isn't enough time for the Reyvateil to power up. However, when she is needed, all that's really necessary is to pay attention to the notifications the game is giving you. If you see a bunch of colored spikes on the graph, time your attacks around them. If the Reyvateil's spell is strong enough to wipe out the enemy, use it. If you need to purge, do so. That's about it.

Before I wrap up this post, I just want to mention a few more battle quirks. When fighting the normal enemy encounters, you can flee the battle at any time by selecting escape from the menu screen (press triangle). You won't gain any money, exp, items, or gear, but if you really don't want to fight, you don't have to. The last details I wanted to mention were blocking and character control. If you press nothing on the controller, the character you are controlling will block all incoming attacks. In this stance, they will take 50% damage. As for character control, you can only ever move and attack with the melee combatant you have selected. If you want to switch characters, that has to be done in the battle menu. As for the Reyvateil, she is stationary for the entire battle. The only thing you can control is her purging and spell activation.

In a few days I'll share some details on the exploration aspect of ATQ. And after that, I'll talk about the production values, and any other miscellaneous details I might come across. As for when a full review will be up, I can't say. I'm not comfortable giving an opinion on a game until I've seen and done it all. If I just run through the game for the sake of reviewing it, I'll be missing out on a lot of content as well as the point of the game. That said, since ATQ has multiple endings and paths to take through the game, it could take a few months before I finish. But, that's why I'm posting impressions for the game. At least I can give everyone an idea of what the game is like while it's still available for purchase.